The Disappearance of Captain Insano
by Amethyst1
Summary: The beloved mascot of the Marching Beagles has vanished. Where is he? Why hasn't he come home? ...Isn't he hungry? Follow the escapades of Amanda and her pals in the Marching Beagles as they strive to solve the mystery of Captain Insano's mysterious diapp
1. Default Chapter

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The Disappearance of Captain Insano

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This is the first in a series of stories about the Marching Beagles. Stories may be fiction or fact as I choose. This particular incident I chose to start with actually did happen to our band. Any resemblance to band members of the Knights is purely coincidental. I don't own them but I do own their Beagle-y counterparts. Stories may not be told in chronological order. This one begins mid-marching season of 'Amanda's' junior year. Anyone who's age I don't tell is more than likely a sophomore and I may chose to put a list of characters/instruments/ages to help you keep track. I might also chose to tell you the origin of the name the Marching Beagles

And now... for the escapades of the Marching Beagles!

The scene opens on our heroine. A brass player of the loudest degree, horn clutched in her hand, she made an impressive picture as she stood proudly before the rising sun. 

"Amanda!" A voice interrupted her solitary reverie. Tiffany cocked an eyebrow at Amanda's antics and she clambered out of her mother's van.

"Tiffany?" she questioned, "oh bologna! I'm late aren't I?" She dashed into the school not heeding Tiffany's response since it was a well-known fact that Tiffany always overslept.

THWACK! ".. that door is closed..." Tiffany's voice finally penetrated into Amanda's brain as she lay inert on the sidewalk. "Are you ok?" Tiffany gasped as she rushed up to Amanda. "Sked? What happened?" she asked, invoking Amanda's oft-used nickname, derived from her last name, Skedson.

"I'm fine. I just happened to notice how completely fascinating this concrete is and wanted to get a closer look." she replied, attempting to maintain a few shreds of dignity. "If you'll look here this crack my face made bears a striking resemblance to the San Andreas Faultline." Tiffany rolled her eyes at this as she extended a hand to help Amanda up.

"Come on Madame Geologist, let's go play. I hear a drum and if anyone from drumline is out there we're really late." She grabbed Sked's wrist and took off, clarinet case banging into her thighs as she ran.

"Ack!" Amanda gagged, "my hair! I already ate breakfast! I don't need to eat my hair now too." She attempted to spit out the offending strands of brown hair but just wound up getting more in her mouth. "I knew it felt like a ponytail day but nooo... I can't listen to my intuition now can I? Oh ick! I obviously didn't get all the shampoo out there!"

"What on earth are you babbling about?" Tiffany asked, finally slowing almost to a halt in front of the band room.

"Oh nothing just musing about how lucky I am to be getting my daily dose of fiber," she responded, her tone dripping with sarcasm.

Tiffany wisely chose to ignore her as they entered the band room. Luckily the drummer being on time had been a fluke. (Taylor had accidently set his alarm clock an hour early) Upon entering the band room they were immediately accosted by Mallory, the freshman drummer chick.

"Have you seen Captain Insano?" she frantically cried, referring to the fuzzy blue rat-thing the drumline had adopted as its mascot. They'd decided he was a 'kangaroogul' , except Mallory, who maintained that since he was the percussion mascot he should be a 'ratamique,' With a mini-drumline beret, percussion section necklace, tinfoil triangle (complete with triangle beater), and loads of matted, blue fuzz, Captain Insano really did resemble many of the drummers.

"Did you ask Derek?" Sked suggested. The percussionist, turned drum major, would be most likely to know she figured.

"Yes! He had no idea! Mark said he'd set Captain Insano on my quads 15 minutes ago and he's not there now!" She appeared to be very nearly hyperventilating. 

"Mal chill out! He'll turn up. I bet Alex saw him and decided it was his day for the thing" Tiffany spoke soothingly. Mallory however looked unconvinced and went off with the intention of grilling Allison, their curly-haired, French-horn-playing, friend as to the whereabouts of Captain Insano.

"It's official!" Mallory has completely lost it," announced Abigail as she she sauntered out of the instrument room with her flute. "I bet the rat-thing is wherever my lyre is," she grimaced in annoyance. Having none of the pure talent of Tiffany, or untainted prettiness of Allison, Abigail made up for it in a sunny, friendly personality.

"This lyre?" questioned Kevin materializing by Abigail's elbow. Kevin was the trumpet player who was infatuated with Amanda. She was aware of this and went into her 'foaming at the mouth' routine for his benefit. He appeared unsure of how to react, so went with the safe response and threw the lyre at Abigail. "You left it in our car after the game on Friday" On that stunning and memorable line, he beat a hasty retreat and went to talk with Brian, another trumpet player. Abigail burst into a fit of giggles as he left.

"Oh that was priceless!" she gasped. She appeared to be all set to go off into fresh peals of laughter so Sked hastily interrupted her. If you let Abigail laugh too long she tended to forget to breathe and since she figured Renee and Taylor would beat her up if she let Abby pass out in the middle of the band room. She was an awesome person but she tended to be a little on the ditzy side at times.

"Hey Abby, look! Mallory's bugging Keith now." That would be Sked's idea of a mental distraction. Witty statements eluded her at the moment and most likely would cause Abby to laugh even more which was the complete opposite of the reaction she wanted. Success! Abby turned to look at Keith, Kevin's less-than-talented twin brother, who was holding a drumstick. Mallory was talking to him as he contemplated the stick and experimentally hit it against a bass drum. He winced as he discovered snare sticks didn't make the prettiest sound on a bass drum.

Keith has joined band for one reason and one reason only. His girlfriend (who just happened to be Tiffany) was in it. Mr. Dronnin, the director, wasn't used to having random non-musical people wanting to join band and for lack of any better idea, declared him a percussionist and handed him a pair of cymbals. He still couldn't do anything very well but he _could_ crash those cymbals louder than anyone else. As Sked often and loudly remarked he was wonderful at cymbals... now if he could just learn to count so the crashes were in the right places they'd be getting somewhere. 

Their merriment was interrupted by the entrance of Mr. Dronnin and the requisite "yell at the band and tell them they should be lined up already." It was very heartwarming and band wouldn't be band without that little morning ritual. After a rather boring practice which they actually finished with enough time to spare to get to class, the mystery of Captain Insano's disappearance was solved.

CAPTAIN INSANO HAS BEEN KIDNAPPED. DO NOT TRY AND FIND HIM. YOU WILL BE NOTIFIED HOW YOU CAN GET HIM BACK LATER. LOVE, THE KIDNAPPERS.

was proclaimed on a sheet of typed computer paper taped to the board. Mallory was freaking out and the drumline looked rather mutinous. Sked, Tiffany, and Abby stifled giggles as they headed to their lockers. They certainly didn't want to be around when Mallory recovered enough to talk.

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What happened to Captain Insano? Who took him. Stay tuned for the next installment of the thrilling saga of the Marching Beagles!


	2. Random musings on the kidnapping

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In the last chapter we were introduced to our heros and heroines and learned about the drumline mascot, Captain Insano, and his mysterious disappearance. Read on to find out what happened at lunch that day.

And now for The Marching Beagles!

Amanda approached the door to room 101 with some trepidation. Slowly she turned the handle with her eyes screwed shut and braced herself for the wrath of a wound-up Mallory. However the door didn't budge under her hand. She cracked open an eyelid and tugged on the handle a bit more insistently. Giving up all restraint she finally jiggled the handle furiously up and down. Suddenly the source of her problem became crystal clear. In her preoccupation she had forgotten that room 101 was the chorus room. She should have been in front of room 105. Feeling somewhat sheepish she turned and headed to the correct classroom.

However, in her confusion she forgot to mentally prepare herself and was caught unawares as she entered the room. Upon stepping inside she was literally knocked over by an agitated Mallory. From her vantage viewpoint on the floor she could almost read the paper Mallory was waving around. Squinting, she grabbed the sheet of once again plain white typed paper and read it.

CAPTAIN INSANO WILL BE RETURNED ON FRIDAY. WAIT FOR INSTRUCTIONS. LOVE, THE KIDNAPPERS.

"Friday! FRIDAY!" she was shouting and gesticulating wildly as Sked read the note. "How on earth can we wait until Friday. It's only Wednesday! Plus we have a competition that day. We'll go crazy. Completely bonkers!"

"Short trip," Abigail cheerfully remarked, coming up to the group. Mallory was too worked up to do more than shoot an annoyed glance at Abby to returned an innocent smile.

Mallory then went off on a new tangent. "Derek thinks that it was the trumpets. Brain disagrees but only because he's usually a trumpet player."

She continued musing on this vein for awhile until Sked cut her short. "Did you ever think of the flutes?"

Abby shook her head violently. "No, I can guarantee it wasn't us. The seniors are cool but not that cool. The clarinets are more likely. I can see Casey coming up with a plan like that."

"But she was at the doctors this morning so she couldn't' have done it," Sked pointed out.

"Whoever it was had at least one accomplice. The note said kidnapper**_s_**," Abby thought out loud. "A group should be a little easier to find than a single, renegade band member. More people with the potential to trip up and leave clues."

"Come on Nancy Drew, let's go find food," Sked teased.

"If I'm Nancy Drew then who are you?" Abby questioned, following Sked towards the cafeteria.

"Well normally I'd be the crook but since I didn't touch the rat, I'll be one of the Hardy Boys. But at the moment I feel like Bess. I'm starving!" she declared. Abby simply rolled her eyes as they walked into the cafeteria and sat at their usual table.

A few minutes later the whole group was sitting at the table talking and pondering Captain Insano's disappearance. 

"I bet it was the guard!" Amanda suddenly announced. "I mean think about it. Drumline and Colorguard are the two little factions of the marching band. The winds are the major part so the two smaller parts fight. It's the sibling rule. PJ's closer to my size than Amelia so I pick on him." Dhe nodded sharply as if to point out the logic of her argument.

"It's possible I suppose" Mallory's voice trailed off. "But I still think it was the trumpets!" she declared smacking her fist into the table.

"I don't think it was," Brian said thoughtfully. "Travis and his cronies aren't creative enough to come up with something like that much less pull it off. Jackie never shows up and Rand would do it but if he did I'm sure I'd know about it."

"We're overlooking something," Abigail mused. "We're looking at big groups like the trumpets and the guard. What about a small section like the trombones are even a small cluster of random peopl?" She stared into space with her brow furrowed in thought.

"Dour wouldn't do that!" Mallory cried, referring the first chair trombonist and one half of the section.

"Hold on Mal, Abby has a point. Dour would I think. That rat annoys him and he'll go for anything with a good laugh potential," Sked said reasonably, "plus there's one section we're all overlooking." Everyone leaned forward, interested in Amanda's latest revelation.

"Percussionists," she announced with a flourish, leaning back cooly in her chair.

A stifled squeal escaped from Mallory's lips. "if you're suggesting for ONE minute that we took our OWN mascot Amanda Louise Skedson, you are a VERY dead girl," she raged.

"The guilty are often the most angry," Sked wisely said, then abruptly shifted gears, "Just kidding Mal, I know you're innocent. What I'm thinking is a rouge drumliner. Maybe Mark?" she suggested.

Mallory wrinkled her nose. "Maybe but I really doubt it. I just can't see anyone from the drumline doing that. Those that don't care about the cute little ratimaque are willing to humor the rest of us. They're stupid, not malicious. Plus Heather likes him. They won't get on her bad side," she said referring to the drumline instructor and Beagles veteran.

"Drum majors!" Tiffany suddenly shot out. When everyone looked in amazement at the shy, quiet Tiffany she blushed profusely and started explaining. "Drum majors have always disliked the drum line. With them trying to set the tempo and drumline pointedly ignoring them and the winds getting hopelessly confused there's bound to be at least a little resentment there." Sked nodded at the validity of Tiffany's arguments.

Derek however shook his head violently. "Nuh-uh! It wasn't us," he said defensively.

"Well of course they wouldn't tell you, Derek," Sked pointed out logically. "If the drum majors planned this they wouldn't tell the one who's in percussion and dating a drumline girl."

"Nah," Kevin said, finally speaking up. "Sari and Vanessa consider themselves above petty quarrels and childish games. If they got annoyed they'd simply go complain to Mr. Dronnin that the band didn't respect their authority."

The bell rang at this point, cutting off further speculation. Soon enough the mystery would be solved.

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So we still know nothing. Where could Captain Insano be? Will Mallory survive without her ratimaque? Will Sked and co. be forced to kill her before they lose their minds? Stay tuned for chapter 3 of "The Disappearance of Captain Insano"


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